


A Curse in Disguise

by anactoria



Series: Dean/Benny Challenge Ficlets [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fae & Fairies, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Psychic Abilities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-05
Updated: 2014-09-05
Packaged: 2018-02-16 05:46:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2258055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anactoria/pseuds/anactoria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean gets an unwanted gift.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Curse in Disguise

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [deanbennychallenges](http://deanbennychallenges.tumblr.com/)' [week of prompts](http://deanbennychallenges.tumblr.com/post/94762320064/this-years-dean-benny-challenge-week-is-from-the) on Tumblr. Prompt #2: Gift.
> 
> Unbetaed, and shamelessly ripped off from True Blood.

Dean’s huddled on the backseat when Benny finds him. Head on his knees, hands over his ears (not that it helps), curled in on himself as tight as he can manage. 

The rap on the window takes him by surprise, which is a surprise in itself. There’s nobody Dean can’t hear coming, now. Their thoughts batter their way inside of his head like rain drumming on a tin roof—the whole range of crap, banal to homicidal, clamoring for his attention every second of the goddamn day. It’s like he has a tracker attached to every single member of the human race, _beepbeepbeep_ ing away, and he can’t switch any of them off.

Not Benny, though. He stands patiently until Dean unfolds himself and leans across to open the door, slides in to sit beside him on the backseat. Even this close, Dean can’t _hear_ him, and he relaxes fractionally.

“Sam called me,” Benny tells him, after a moment of blissful silence.

Dean shoots him a sceptical look. 

“He’s worried.”

It isn’t an accusation, but Dean feels like he’s on the defensive anyway, hunching back in on himself, scrubbing at his eyes. “I had to get outta there,” he says. “I could hear him, Benny. Everything he was thinking. And I couldn’t—” His throat tightens, and he breaks off.

Benny’s big hand on his shoulder is a soothing weight, but all Benny says is, “I get it.” 

He waits for Dean to take a couple deep, shuddery breaths and calm down before he changes the subject. 

“Good news is, it don’t seem like these _fair folk_ wanted to hurt you.” He places an ironic stress on the words, which, yeah. Dean’s seen way more fairies than he ever expected—or wanted—to, and most of them don’t look like Tinkerbell. “Seems this was their idea of giving you a gift.”

Dean snorts. “Yeah, well. Hope they kept the receipt.” He tries for a laugh and fails; looks sideways at Benny instead. “So, how come it doesn’t work on you?”

“Dunno.” Benny shrugs. “What they say? When they worked this little spell on you?”

“Don’t exactly remember. Skull-busting migraines, kinda distracting.” Dean thinks hard, though. “Something about _knowing the minds of your fellow man_ , I think?”

“Well, there’s your answer. I ain’t exactly your fellow man, now, am I?”

“Great. I got a grand total of one person I can stand to be around for the rest of my life.” Dean sighs. “That’s just awesome.”

It comes out more vicious than he intends, and he flinches inwardly. If anybody in this mess doesn’t deserve his bitterness, it’s Benny.

Benny doesn’t take offence, though. His arm finds its way around Dean’s shoulders, draws him in close until he’s resting his aching head against Benny’s solid bulk.

“We’re gonna fix this,” Benny promises him. “On my life.”

“Asshole,” Dean mutters, elbowing him in the ribs. But when he closes his eyes, it’s quiet. 

A little white noise from the other end of the parking lot, an occasional burst of chatter from a passing car, but nothing he can’t ignore if he tries. With Benny, his mind’s his own again, and right now, that’s the best gift anybody could give him.


End file.
